Aavasaksa Hill
Aavasaksa is one of Finland’s official national landscapes and one of the country’s first tourist destinations. It is located about 13 kilometres north of the municipal centre of Ylitornio.
Since the 17th century, travellers to Lapland have visited Aavasaksa to admire the midnight sun. At the beginning of the 19th century at the latest, the locals began to gather at the hill to celebrate Midsummer. By the end of the century, Aavasaksa’s reputation as a tourist destination was well established.
The measurement point was most likely at the observation tower built on the top of Aavasaksa, like the later measurement point for the Struve Geodetic Arc. In 2005, a monument to Maupertuis’ degree measuring was erected next to the observation tower.
Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, who had arrived by ship before the rest of the party crossing the country, reached Tornio and travelled with the governor Gabriel Gyllengrip to Aavasaksa around the time of summer solstice.
At that stage, the expedition had not yet made the decision to build a chain of triangles on the hills. At Aavasaksa, Maupertuis already turned his attention to the chain of hills bordering the Torne.
In early July 1736, an expedition erected a marker on Aavasaksa, and the entire hill was cleared of trees. The expedition returned to the site at the end of the month. On this occasion, Governor Gyllengrip and his entourage also visited the expedition. A dining room with tables and benches was built from the trees and foliage, and all the remaining red wine was put on the table to celebrate.
Local residents often visited the site to watch the Frenchmen at work. They brought with them fish, sheep and “these miserable fruits that grow in these forests.” Presumably Maupertuis was talking about bilberries.
Maupertuis and Réginald Outhier returned to Aavasaksa in December. The reindeer ride to Aavasaksa was “short but awful”. The French were not used to the slippery sledges and repeatedly fell over in the snow. Maupertuis also injured his hand during the journey.
There are several buildings built for tourism in Aavasaksa. The ornate Keisarinmaja villa, built by the state, dates from 1882. The building was designed by architect Hugo Emil Saurén.
It was built for the ultimately unfulfilled visit of Russian Emperor Alexander III. Finland was part of the Russian Empire from 1809 to 1917.
The pavilion was built in 1927 as a so-called tourist hut. It is Lapland’s oldest surviving building specifically made for tourist use. Next to Keisarinmaja is an Art Nouveau-style kiosk that was brought there from Apteekinpuisto in Tornio. It was built in 1912 and moved to Aavasaksa in 1959 to serve tourists.
The red brick observation tower was built in 1969. The first plans for the Aavasaksa observation tower had been drawn up 90 years earlier.
Sources:
Hautajärvi, Harri. “Aavasaksa ja öinen aurinko”. Kestävän matkailun monitieteiset mittarit kulttuuriympärstöissä. Eds. Soile Veijola and Kati Kyyrö. Valtioneuvoston selvitys- ja tutkimustoiminnan julkaisusarja 2020:26. Valtioneuvoston kanslia, Helsinki, 2020.
Maupertuis, Pierre Louis Moreau de. “Maan muoto”. Maan muoto ynnä muita kirjoituksia Lapista. Ed. Osmo Pekonen. Väyläkirjat, 2019 (orig. 1738).
Finnish Heritage Agency: https://www.rky.fi/read/asp/r_kohde_det.aspx?KOHDE_ID=2174
Outhier, Réginald. Matka Pohjan perille. Maupertuis Foundation and Väyläkirjat, 2011 (orig. 1744).
A map
Guidelines for using the map
- Red = Measurement point of the triangulation chain.
- Green = Walking route.
- Blue = Arrival from the main road (highway 21).
- Markers: Tap or click to get more information about the destinations.
- Zoom out: Shows the location in the triangulation chain.
- Drop icon: Locates the user’s location on the map.
- Measure tool: Measure distances between locations.
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On the old map
Aavasaksa Hill on the map drawn by Réginald Outhier (Carte du fleuve de Torneå, 1736).

Information
Pictures from Aavasaksa
The pictures open in large size in the gallery by clicking on the picture.

The expedition on the map
Réginald Outhier has written a detailed description of the expedition’s journey from Paris to Tornio and back. The journey took two months each way and was made by boat and wagon. On the way back, the expedition was in a shipwreck in the Bay of Bothnia.
Measurement points and other destinations
- Baseline
- Huitaperi
- Iso-Horila
- Kaakamavaara
- Kittisvaara
- Niemivaara
- Nivavaara
- Pullinki
- The Church of Matarengi
- The Church of Tornio
- The rapids of the Torne